How to Install .Tar.Gz Files

Installing software from .tar files is a a common problem for users new to Linux and other Unix-based operating systems. You find a cool application or a much-needed security patch, eagerly click the download link and get a strange file with a double filename extension - ".tar.gz". There's no point in trying the old double-click trick on this mysterious data unit. Even on the most user-friendly distribution of Linux it would only yield a new window listing a number of other, even more cryptic files - and still no "Install" button.

What's going on here? The answer is that a TAR.GZ file isn't an installer at all. It's actually an archive that (usually) contains numerous source code files that need to be compiled, linked and processed in many other unusual and exciting ways to finally produce the desired software. Luckily, for most applications this process is mostly automated.

The first thing you need to do is extract the archive. To do this, open the console and navigate to the directory containing the .tar.gz file. Then, enter this command : "tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz" (substitute the name of your archive file in place of "filename"). If all goes well, this command will extract the contents of the archive in the current directory.

Next, look for a newly create file called "INSTALL" or "README". Most software distributions include a file like that. In this file you should be able to find detailed instructions about how to carry on the installation. Even though the install/readme file doesn't have a .txt extension, it's always a plain text file that can be opened in any text editor.

But what if the file isn't there, or you're just too lazy for your own good and want to get right on to the installation? In that case, here's the default sequence of commands that is typically used to install any software distributed as source code :

• ./configure
• make
• make install

Enter them all in sequence and your new software should finally be installed.